QOTD: Synchronicity

[Davey Boy 2.0]

Anyone ever had any experiences with this "acausal connecting prinicple"? I haven't myself, but I read the Jung book on it and find the idea quite intriguing- kind of a skewed way of looking at reality.

Wikipedia gives this as one of the most famous anecdotes/examples:

A well-known example of synchronicity involves plum pudding. It is the true story of the French writer Émile Deschamps who in 1805 is treated to some plum pudding by the stranger Monsieur de Fontgibu. Ten years later, he encounters plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant, and wants to order some, but the waiter tells him the last dish has already been served to another customer, who turns out to be M. de Fontgibu. Many years later in 1832 Émile Deschamps is at a diner, and is once again offered plum pudding. He recalls the earlier incident and tells his friends that only M. de Fontgibu is missing to make the setting complete, and in the same instant the now senile M. de Fontgibu enters the room by mistake.

:crazy:

[AD]

Interesting topic for sure, I really have nothing to contribute though. I thought you were talking about The Police at first.

Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that.

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[Davey Boy 2.0]

well i suppose the bar's kinda high with that example- there are some that think of these "meaningful coincidences" could even be as simple as these types of scenarios (although the site i found them on seems pretty 'flakey'):

- There are in your life when financial difficulties seem to have no end. Yet there is always enough money for basic expenses...rent, food, utilities. Finances seem to appear where and when they are needed.

- You have just received your last check from unemployment when suddenly a job comes along.

- You walk into a book store not knowing what to buy, and the book you need falls from a shelf and practically hits you over the head.

You have been feeling ill with no apparent cure. You are out for the day and meet someone who knows a doctor or healer with the answers.

- There is a sudden relocation which seems to be for one reason, and you find much more than you bargained for.

- You finally end a bad relationship and immediately another partner comes into your life.

- You feel depressed and can't find focus in your life and the next person you talk you says something that brings you the guidance you need.

- Everyone's favorite.....You drive to a place where parking is "next to impossible" and someone pulls out of a parking spot or it is just waiting for you.

Personally I find it hard to see any meaning in finding a parking space, but I do know that there have been times in my life where some heavy shit's going down and my Mum will call out of the blue and rather than saying "Hi, how are you", she'll say "Is everything alright with you?"

It's only happened once or twice but it's pretty freaky at the same time.

I also used to be convinced that she could smell beer over the phone, but that was when I was 18 or younger, so being young dumb and full of booze might have been a factor in that 'illusion'.

Edited December 8, 2005 by Guest
subliminalmessage

[bradm]

I think people's recognition of synchronicity can often be attributed to our seeing/remembering coincidences, but not remembering non-coincidences.

For example, how many times did Émile Deschamps have plum pudding over those 10 + many years and not have Monsieur de Fontgibu involved? If the article had also listed those times (many times, I'd guess), the two or three times when Fontgibu was involved wouldn't seem so mysterious.

Here's one of mine, though. At Blues Fest this year, I was talking to someone about Todd (aka Velvet). After I mentioned Todd's name, I turned around and bumped into Todd...but not Todd/Velvet, it was a different Todd, a guy I used to work with years ago, and whome I hadn't seen in several years. Synchronicity, or just coincidence?

Aloha,

Brad

[Davey Boy 2.0]

Synchronicity, or just coincidence?

it's all in the mind

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i don't want to look it up, but aren't some of those 'moments' listed above serendipity? or is my grasp of language slipping?

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[SevenSeasJim]

Happens to me sometimes.

At lunch last week a co-worker was bad mouthing his wife and she called about 15 seconds after.

I also never worry to much about anything because it always works itself out (95% of the time anyway)

[bradm]

I think serendipity has a different meaning

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+serendipity&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Aloha,

Brad

[AD]

Ah, you're right Brad.

Serendipity is a romantic movie, starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack.

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[deranger]

In my humble opinion:

1) there is no such thing as a coincidence

2) you create your own world through the millions of choices available to you at any given moment.

3) everything is possible

4) anything is possible

5) synchronicity is the observable effects of your will and your choices on the nature of your existence.

[jonyak]

dunno if this counts but:

one time I was playing monopoly and I was next to bankrupt, most of my stuff was in hock, noone had won the free parking money for a while so there was quite a bit of it there. I needed double sixes to land on it and get the money, so naturaly I told the dice to land on six for me out loud. Funny enough I got double sixes, got the money and it was pretty much exactly enough money to get all my properties out of hock. I thought it was kinda weird.

Edited December 8, 2005 by Guest

[headymamamyrna]

Happens to me sometimes.

At lunch last week a co-worker was bad mouthing his wife and she called about 15 seconds after.

I also never worry to much about anything because it always works itself out (95% of the time anyway)

Thats a realy good one!!!!Too bad she hadn't walked in the door!

[TomFoolery]

In my humble opinion:

1) its all chaotic

2) you create meaning in your mind

3) there is no grand design

That's not to say that these opportunities and fortunate events are to be brushed off. What you do with these chaotic gifts is another matter altogether.

Edited December 8, 2005 by Guest
poor definitions

[headymamamyrna]

I have a son who

always calls but not often when I'm in the middle of wrapping a present for him like a birthday or his Christmas gift.

The other night i was cooking meat pie for Christmas and i was thinking he was going to call well quess what he did!!!

i would have been disappointed if he hadn't.

These things happen to me all the time .

Is it coincidence or what?

[deranger]

maybe I should clarify - by suggesting there's no such thing as a coincidence, I didn't mean everything is pre-ordained - far from it (no to determinism and fatalism) - what I meant was your will and your choices create coincidences, not that they happen out of nowhere or nothing - they happen because of you.

Edited December 8, 2005 by Guest

[TomFoolery]

Shoulda read chaotic - coincidental is too random.

[Tooly]

happens to me all the time, ill be thinking about someone, and theyll call, or ill run into them somewhere, ill be thinking about how me and whoever didnt clear everything up last time we talked, and bam they call out of the blue with the same things in their mind, or ill be thinking man it would be reallllly good if this happens, and sure enough, more often than not it does.

[bradm]

To me, coincidences and synchronous events are the result not (just) of my exercise of my free will, but they're the recognition of the interactions between independent events.

For example, if I make a conscious, reasoned decision to go to a certain grocery store on a certain date at a certain time, and bump into a friend I haven't seen for a long time, we say, "Wow! What a happy accident!" Well, there isn't really an accident, as I made a decision (of my free will), and so did my friend; it just happened that those two independent decisions came to the same conclusion (i.e., being at a certain place at a certain time). We recognize this co-incident, and think that there must be something "above" each of us, causing this to happen, when in fact nothing of the kind is needed to explain what happened.

Aloha,

Brad

[Del]

"Knowing our personal mission further enhances the flow of mysterious coincidences as we are guided toward our destinies. First we have a question; then dreams, daydreams, and intuitions lead us towards the answers, which usually are synchronistically provided by the wisdom of another human being."

[Davey Boy 2.0]

I think people's recognition of synchronicity can often be attributed to our seeing/remembering coincidences, but not remembering non-coincidences.

For example, how many times did Émile Deschamps have plum pudding over those 10 + many years and not have Monsieur de Fontgibu involved? If the article had also listed those times (many times, I'd guess), the two or three times when Fontgibu was involved wouldn't seem so mysterious.

maybe true, but considering that he hadn't seem Fontgibu for many years in between each incident, their surprise meetings are what constitute the 'mystery', and the pudding merely acts as a strange common 'connecting' factor

To me, I sometimes feel that ideas have lives and lifespans as much as any living organism, and that some ideas, once born can spring up in the minds of many- thus becoming a connecting point between individuals.

Human interaction backs this up to a degree, you associate and interact with people whose ideas about the world you can relate to, ideas that make sense; conversely those who's views of the world differ from yours, you relate to less depending on how they differ, on what issues they differ and how much you know about their views.

And those whose idea are similar to yours become more ingrained or connected the more you get to know them, thus those ideas that you share connect you, potentially quite profoundly (think of how some people can complete each others sentences, or even can complete each others thoughts)

I think this may be at the root of sychronistic 'events', that in the case of deschamps and Fontgibu, when their 'orbits' crossed the one thing/symbol that deschamps associated with his acquaintence came to mind, which may in turn have caused him to get the pudding....

anyway i gotta stop rambling before i get carried away here

[bradm]

re: Celestine Prophecy

I think I prefer this one.

Aloha,

Brad

Edited December 8, 2005 by Guest

[timouse]

happens to me all the time.

i was laid off from a job, that very same evening my landlord came down to visit me with beers and a job offer. i was subsequently hired away from that job by a customer who needed someone with exactly the skills i had.

driving through downtown toronto i was suddenly inspired to turn left, and immediately saw a friend that i've not seen for years standing by an empty parking spot which i took and had an amazing catch-up visit.

In my humble opinion:

1) its all coincidental

2) you create meaning in your mind

3) there is no grand design

That's not to say that these opportunities and fortunate events are to be brushed off. What you do with these chaotic gifts is another matter altogether.

maybe so, but as a wise man once said, "once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right."

[Del]

re: Celestine Prophecy

I think I prefer this one.

Aloha,

Brad

Actually, this one is good as well:

[deranger]

right, I wouldn't even call bumping into a friend at the grocery store a coincidence,I'd call it bumping into a friend at a grocery store. What would be more significant would be if you were thinking about seeing that person, or had just thought about seeing them, and then did. That, in my mind, is not a coincidence either, but something more significant.

and I never read the celestine prophecy though the spark of the no-coincidence idea came from it. quantum physics has a lot to say about it too without the mew-age religious overtones of the prophecy.

Edited December 8, 2005 by Guest

[Davey Boy 2.0]

dunno if this counts but:

one time I was playing monopoly and I was next to bankrupt, most of my stuff was in hock, noone had won the free parking money for a while so there was quite a bit of it there. I needed double sixes to land on it and get the money, so naturaly I told the dice to land on six for me out loud. Funny enough I got double sixes, got the money and it was pretty much exactly enough money to get all my properties out of hock. I thought it was kinda weird.

the sloth and i were playing backgammon just after the world had come crashing down all around, he threw the dice and one of them landed on it's corner and stayed there.

picture to prove it